In Morocco, the intersectoral professional association for electric mobility (APIME) has been launched. With the mission of developing sustainable transport in the Kingdom of Morocco, the new platform is supported by economic operators and the National Federation of Electricity, Electronics and Renewable Energy (FENELEC).
The initiative, which aims to reduce air pollution caused by thermal vehicles, will be managed by a 14-member executive committee. Among them are Moulay Hafid Amrani, the managing director of the investment company Afrimobility, Karim Boukaa, the CEO of the company Adiwatt, which specialises in solar solutions, and Allal Benjelloun, the managing director of the Centrale automobile chérifienne (CAC), which imports the brands Audi, Volkswagen and Skoda into Morocco.
“The first lines of work will be devoted to dialogue with the public authorities in order to complete the standardisation of electric mobility equipment and to examine with the electricity distribution organisations and the private sector the specifications for the connection of recharging facilities for electric vehicles,” says Omar El Harti, the president of APIME and also the deputy general manager of Centrelec, an industrial equipment supplier based in Casablanca.
At the same time, the Moroccan authorities are working on the implementation of an energy transition policy favourable to the decarbonisation of urban transport. It is in this context that the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) has begun the development of the “National Master Plan for Electric Mobility” in collaboration with the Institut de la Francophonie pour le Développement Durable (IFDD) and the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership (GSEP).
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In the meantime, car manufacturers are working hard to deploy electric vehicles in Morocco. This is the case of the French giant Renault, which recently announced that its Tangier factory would produce its range of electric vehicles “Mobilize Duo” from October 2023. This two-seater is equipped with smartphone-assisted driving software and a battery exchange recharging system.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi